Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
The power take-off assemblies on farm and industrial equipment have been designed to operate at either 540-RPM with a standard 6-spline connection or at 1000-RPM with a standard 21-spline connection. Originally, the 540-RPM standard was used on the power unit as well as the driven unit. As larger tractors became more commonplace, the additional standard of 1000 RPM became quite common. This creates a problem when some equipment has been manufactured to operate at 540-RPM, while other equipment has been manufactured to operate at 1000-RPM. The same is true of the power units; they may operate at only one pre-selected speed. An operator with a power unit designed to operate at one speed could only utilize equipment designed to operate at the same RPM. Many current manufacturers have produced power units that can operate at either speed as an option on original equipment. Some attempts have been made to produce a portable unit which changes the input to output RPM, the portable unit can be mounted on different power units, and provides a single output shaft with a single input shaft. One shaft is a 6-spline shaft operating at 540-RPM and the other shaft is a 21-spline shaft operating at 1000-RPM. One major drawback to the current design is that it only provides for mounting on the power unit. It does not provide for mounting the unit on the driven equipment. Another shortcoming of the current design is that it allows for only one input shaft and one output shaft. Therefore, one unit is required to operate from a 6-spline 540-RPM power unit and another unit is required to operate from a 21-spline 1000-RPM power unit. Furthermore, this means in order to operate a power unit and a driven unit with compatible RPM, you must remove the portable unit from the power unit. These design flaws result in an adapter that is not practical because of the cost of three units, one to provide dual output, another to slow speed down to 540-RPM and another unit to increase speed up to 1000-RPM. It also becomes labor intensive because these units must constantly be mounted or removed as each application changes.
The Portable Multi-Speed, Multi-Input, Multi-Output Drive for Power Take-Off and the Like provides a method for driving a machine at its designed speed even though the power unit is designed to operate at a different speed. While the invention is designed to connect the standard power take-off unit on a farm or industrial tractor, the connection can be applied to any power unit and the equipment it is to drive. The portable unit provides dual output shafts driven by either of two input shafts. The unit can also be mounted on either the power unit or the driven equipment. The driven equipment may be designed to operate at a selected number of RPM while the power unit may operate at a different predetermined RPM. For example some pieces of driven equipment such as a rotary mower may be designed to operate at 540-RPM, while other rotary mowers are designed to operate at 1000-RPM. If the driven unit, in this case the rotary mower, is designed to operate at 1000-RPM and the power unit, in this example the tractor, only operates at 540-RPM, this invention allows the driven unit to operate at 1000-RPM by attaching the driven unit to the high-speed output shaft while any power unit, such as a farm tractor, would be attached to the low-speed input shaft. If you have the reverse requirements, that is a 540-RPM driven requirement and a 1000-RPM power unit, you just attach the low-speed output shaft to the driven equipment and the high-speed shaft to the power unit. If both units are designed for the same speed, you attach both units to the same input and output shaft, either the low-speed or high-speed as appropriate. The invention has fewer parts, simpler design and the capability to use one unit to accommodate all possible connections as well as the capability to operate two output shafts concurrently from the same power unit.
The invention can also be mounted on the driven equipment either as original equipment, or as an add-on at a later date. Driven equipment with this invention added has the flexibility to be driven by a power unit with either standard speed. The ratio of the speed and rotation of the two shafts can be controlled by internal configuration within the gear case.
The major advantage of this invention over prior art is one unit replaces the need for three separate units; one for dual output, another for increased speed and still another for reduced speed. Another advantage is the labor saved in changing from one unit to another each time the driven equipment requirements change. This invention also allows the driven equipment to be adapted to match any power unit. No other prior art provides one unit which is portable, has multiple input to allow it to be connected to either standard power source, has multiply output to allow it to be connected to either standard driven unit, has the power shaft extending through the gear case allowing equipment of the same speed to be utilized without removing the invention, allows standard configurations to be connected without fear of accidentally operating the equipment at the wrong speed, and has multiple output to allow more than one piece of equipment to be driven from one power unit.